Green Belt under threat as more than 7,500 new homes in Sefton are needed by 2031 to meet growing demand

MORE than 500 homes a year will have to be built in Sefton by 2031 to meet the borough’s housing needs.

An update on Sefton’s Local Plan, set to go before politicians next week, reveals hundreds more homes than previously expected will be required to avert a housing crisis.

The news will worry campaigners against development on Green Belt land as the demand grows for more homes and business land.

After reviewing the borough’s housing situation, independent consultants Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners (NLP) identify that 510 homes a year will have to be built to meet growing demand. This could see a loss of at least 2.1% of the borough’s Green Belt – 144 hectares (ha).

Between now and 2031, NLP predict 5,900 people will move into the borough from elsewhere in the UK, and 8,760 from abroad, swelling the need for new homes.

From 2015 – when it is expected the plan will be adopted – to when it expires in 2031 this means more than 7,500 homes will have to built.

The number could rise if Sefton council fails to meet targets to fill vacant homes, which NLP describe as being “a challenge”.

A separate study on the need for employment land in Sefton is also included in the report. Figures reveal 77.28 hectares of employment land will be needed as well as the land for housing development.

Only 53.78 ha of this can be built on brownfield sites – meaning 31 ha of Green Belt may have to be sacrificed to meet requirements. The document, set to go before planning committee at Bootle Town Hall on Wednesday (6.30pm start), explains: “Sefton has a comparatively small pool of employment sites relative to other Merseyside districts, and that these sites are of varying quality.

“A key challenge will be to ensure the delivery of identified development sites, and the remodelling of currently under-used land.”

It has previously been explained a new business park is required in north Sefton, but the report reveals a second borough business park also needs to be built, preferably in south Sefton.

On top of the business parks Green Belt land to the rear of Crowland Street is identified as a prime site for an industrial estate.